Dr. Gwendolyn Boyd selected Alabama State U. president

Former DST national president to be first woman at university helm

Alabama State University’s (ASU) Board of Trustees Dec. 20 selected Dr. Gwendolyn Boyd, ASU alum and a former Delta Sigma Theta national president, to be the next ASU president.

The board vote to offer the position to Dr. Boyd was unanimous, according to school officials. She will be the first woman to hold the position in the school’s 146-year history.

Alabama-born, she earned her bachelor’s degree from ASU in 1977 in mathematics. She received a fellowship to attend Yale University’s School of Engineering in New Haven, Conn., becoming the school’s first African American woman to receive an M.S. degree in mechanical engineering in 1979.

The board voted Dec. 20 after interviewing three finalists at the Montgomery university. The other finalists were retired Brigadier Gen. Samuel Nichols and Democratic state Sen. Quinton Ross.